RE/TRANSLATION: LAND & LANGUAGE at A Space Gallery ( 401 Richmond West), to November 23. 416-979-9633. Rating: NNN
Canadian Aboriginal artists focus on the big issues of motherland and mother tongue in this A Space show – with varying degrees of success.
Peter Morin ‘s painting of mouth-like pebble shapes arranged like letters in a row equates geological and written forms, and his delicate drawings of crows hanging above basins of water and river stones subtly evoke his northern BC community and its mythology.
A traditional leather doll sits watching a small video of artist Jude Norris making her. Writing on the doll’s dress in English and Cree (“I am perfect just as I am,” “There is no word for perfection in Cree.”) adds a personal intervention to the ancient craft, an intervention that’s absent from Strong Woman Dress, a standard traditional buckskin garment on which Norris projects media photos of native women.
A fascinating story lies behind Rebecca Baird ‘s Lost Bird. A large image of a sad-faced child is painted not very expressively on the wall, and beside it hangs a line of red beaded children’s mittens representing the many other children lost. The work itself lacks the impact of the narrative you can read at www.sdpb. org/tv/oto/lostbird about the baby who survived the Wounded Knee massacre and was adopted by a general and his suffragist wife.
Best known as a photographer (his photos of churches accompanied the AGO’s recent Emily Carr show), Arthur Renwick contributes a barely perceptible wall installation. He surrounds the Bible quote “And the word was…” with the names of West Coast Aboriginal languages done in shiny, transparent lettering, they’re like persistent ghosts hovering on the verge of consciousness.
In the hallway windows, Daryl James Bucar ‘s colourful, childlike oil pastels take a journey through stereotypes and anger to a place of reconnection. Though none of these works is a real knockout, taking the ideas the show plays with into new realms, they are all interesting efforts by artists worth watching.
